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Follicle

I have a new hematologist, he is great and all that is wonderful. But more on that another time! Right now, I want to write about my followup OBGYN appointment.

I saw Dr. Ahdoot yesterday. We chit-chatted a little bit about how I am doing with the Lovenox and what my hematologist told me before buckling down for a transvaginal ultrasound.

Dr. Ahdoot: I’m guessing you are at about day 12 in your cycle.
Me: That’s about right. [Yesterday was CD13]
Dr. Ahdoot: You have a cyst here on your ovary.
Me: (deflated) Oh.
Dr. Ahdoot: Yeah, the follicle is about the size of a golf ball. I’d say you will ovulate sometime in the next 36 – 48 hours.
Me: (reinflated) Oh?
Dr. Ahdoot: It’s time to have a sex marathon.

He asked me how aggressive I want to be, if I want him to prescribe something to help going forward. I said that we would like to try naturally for a few months and then, if I don’t conceive, we can be more proactive. So he advised me to just relax — to stop charting, to stop taking ovulation tests, to just enjoy things and have a crazy amount of sex with my boyfriend. To that I say: HA! I mean, I will enjoy things and have crazy amounts of sex but I am way too much of a geek to stop charting. I love collecting data. LOVE. IT. I don’t find it stressful at this point — it’s exciting! I can’t wait to wake up every morning to take my temperature and see what my body is doing. No matter where this journey takes me, I will be thankful for it putting me in touch with myself.

He gave me a print-out of my ultrasound as well as some prescription prenatal vitamin samples and sent me on my way with the understanding that if I am not pregnant in a few months, he’ll put me on Clomid.

I was feeling pretty good at that point! One of my fears going into this was to discover that my body wasn’t working correctly, that I had waited too long and that it was too late. I left his office feeling reassured that my lady parts were still behaving normally. When I got to the office, I gazed happily at the print-out of my follicle and was impressed with its measurement.

Good work growing up all big and juicy, buddy!

Enter Google.

I noticed the measurement in the lower right corner — Rt Fol 1-D1 25.3mm — and decided to Google that shit. Some of the search results seemed to indicate that a 25.3mm follicle is too big! That the egg over-matured and is useless. That there was nothing in there at all and it became a cyst. CYST! The doctor had called it a cyst at first! WHAT DID HE MEAN?! Wikipedia told me this:

In the US, ovarian cysts are found in nearly all premenopausal women, and in up to 14.8% of postmenopausal women.

I basically spent the rest of the day vaguely bummed out and slightly worried. I mean, yeah, it would suck if I miss out on this cycle but I find it more upsetting to think that there are Problems Down There. But then more searches revealed that a 25mm follicle is still viable and is basically just ready to pop. So I don’t know!

My last cycle was 32 days long. If that holds true for this one, my ovulation date should be on Monday. However, I have no idea how regular I am because I was on birth control for the longest time and when I wasn’t, I never really paid attention. So maybe this cycle will be shorter. Maybe it will be longer. Who knows? Not me!

I started temping in early November and my period came calling on the 16th. Therefore, I still don’t have a full cycle charted. But if I compare the latter half of last cycle and the first half of this one, I get this:

Purple line was last cycle, green line is the current one

If this cycle matches my last, then that looks like this will be a good biphasic chart. Last night, I took an ovulation test and while it was still negative, the test line was a lot darker than it has been so far this cycle. I was hoping to see a dip in temperature this morning with a spike on Friday. Maybe I will dip tomorrow and spike on Saturday? I don’t know how much longer this follicle can hang on before becoming over-cooked.

Maybe I should take Dr. Ahdoot’s advice and stop charting for now? But I can’t stop. I. MUST. COLLECT. DATA.